World War II veteran weds near Normandy’s D-Day beaches. He’s 100 and his bride is 96

CARENTAN-LES-MARAIS, France – Together, the bride and groom’s collective age was nearly 200 years old. But World War II veteran Harold Terens and his girlfriend Jeanne Swerlin proved that love is eternal when they tied the knot on Saturday inside the Day D beaches of Normandy, France.

Their respective ages — he’s 100, she’s just 96 — made their nuptials a celebration nearly two centuries old. The New York natives — who say they stay young by dancing to their favorite songs and holding hands — met three years ago in Boca Raton, Florida.

On the “CBS Evening News” earlier this week, Terens shared his feelings for Swerlin.

“I’m getting married because I love this girl,” he said. “She is one of the most magnificent women.”

On the way to the wedding, the happy bride said: “It’s not just for young people, love, you know? We got butterflies in our stomachs.

The location was the elegant stone-crafted Carentan Town Hall, one of the main early D-Day objectives that saw fierce fighting after the Allied landings on June 6, 1944, which helped free Europe from the tyranny of Adolf Hitler.

Like other towns and villages along the Normandy coast, where some 160,000 Allied soldiers landed under fire on five code-named beaches, it is a bustling center of remembrance and celebration of the 80th anniversary of the deeds and sacrifices of young men and women. in that day. decorated with flags and banners and with veterans celebrated like rock stars.

As Glenn Miller’s swing and other period music echoed through the streets, well-wishers – some in WWII period clothing – were already lined up a good hour before the wedding, behind barriers outside City Hall, with a Stimulating pipe and drum band also available to serenade the happy couple.

After both declared “oui” to the votes read by the mayor of Carentan in English, the couple exchanged rings.

“With this ring, I married you,” said Terens.

She laughed and gasped, “Really?”

With glasses of champagne in hand, they waved through an open window to the adoring crowd outside.

“To the good health of everyone. And to peace in the world and the preservation of democracy throughout the world and the end of the war in Ukraine and in Gaza,” Terens said as he and his bride toasted and drank.

The crowd shouted “la mariée!” – the bride! — to Swerlin, who wore a long, flowing dress in vibrant pink. Terens looked dapper in a light blue suit and a matching pink handkerchief in his chest pocket.

And they are expected to have a very special wedding party: They were invited to the state dinner at the Elysee Palace on Saturday night with President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden, the mayor said.

The wedding was symbolic, not legally binding. Mayor Jean-Pierre Lhonneur’s office said he did not have the power to marry foreigners who were not residents of Carentan and that the couple, both Americans, had not requested legally binding vows. However, they could always complete these formalities in Florida if they wished.

Lhonneur likes to say that Normandy is practically the 51st state in the USA, given his reverence and gratitude for the deeds and sacrifices of the tens of thousands of Allied soldiers who never returned home after the Battle of Normandy.

“Love is eternal, yes, perhaps,” said the mayor, referring to the newlyweds, although his comments also aptly describe the feelings of many Normans toward the veterans.

“I hope for them the best happiness together.”

Dressed in a 1940s dress that belonged to her mother, Louise, and a red beret, 73-year-old Jane Ollier was among the early-bird spectators waiting to catch a glimpse of the lovebirds.

“It’s so moving to get married at this age,” she said. “If it can bring them happiness in the last years of their lives, that’s fantastic.”

The World War II veteran first visited France as a 20-year-old U.S. Army Air Forces corporal shortly after D-Day. Terens enlisted in 1942 and, after embarking for Britain, was assigned to a squadron of four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighters as a radio repair technician.

On D-Day, Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could return to battle. He said half of his company’s pilots died that day. Terens himself went to France 12 days later, helping to transport newly captured Germans and recently released American prisoners of war to England. After the Nazi surrender in May 1945, Terens again helped transport freed Allied prisoners to England before returning to the US a month later.

The couple, both widowers, grew up in New York City: she in Brooklyn, he in the Bronx.